I admit to having a fondness for the 392nd-greatest song of all time, "O-o-h Child" by the Five Stairsteps. This family group of 4 brothers and one sister had a Top 40 hit on their hands that was "uplifting and encouraging."
And the lyric rang with hope:
The song certainly made things easier for the singers, because that simple 4-line chorus was sung six times, comprising 50% of the song.
And the song certainly made it easy for the musicians, too, because the chord progression and basic melody of those 4 lines comprised 100% of the song!
No joke: When they moved on from singing "Ooh child, things...," they kept the same structure and sang, "Some day, we'll get it together..."
Then finally, for the repeated coda, they switch to the upbeat declaration that all this wonderful increased ease and brightness and getting things together was going to happen "right now."
Let's see about that.
The song was released, and started spreading its message of joyful hope and immediate change in April of 1970.
- April 10 - Paul McCartney announces the official break-up of The Beatles
- April 11 - Apollo 13 launches (and we all know how great that worked out)
- April 30 - U.S. troops invade Cambodia
- May 4 - 4 student anti-war protesters killed at Kent State University
- June 16 - Race riots erupt in Miami, Florida
- June 23 - Chubby "Let's Twist Again Like We Did Last Summer" Checker arrested for marijuana possession
So yeah...happy, happy, joy, joy...but wrong.
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